A judge who freed a violent rapist to strike again admitted he made a mistake as he jailed him for life.

Parkinson's Disease victim Paul Parker faced jail in February 2001 for raping a woman in her Tyneside home.

But the former soldier was released on a community rehabilitation order after Judge David Hodson was told high doses of anti-Parkinson's drugs had triggered increased sex drive and psychosis.

Reports from doctors, psychiatrists and probation officers all indicated Parker would not be a future threat to women.

But as revealed in later editions of last night's Chronicle, in April the ex-drill sergeant tried to rape a teenage student at knifepoint, pinning her to the floor of her South Shields flat and smothering her.

An earlier victim also broke a four-year silence to tell how Parker had held a knife to her throat and tried to rape her in her bed in 1999.

Parker, 37, from Hazel Street, Jarrow, South Tyneside, has been given an automatic life sentence after a Newcastle Crown Court jury convicted him of two charges of attempted rape.

Reports this time confirmed Parker, who fantasised about the attacks before he staged them, remains a danger.

And he even told a psychiatrist himself he would be 100 per cent sure not to strike again only if he were dead.

Judge Hodson said: "I was persuaded in 2001 you posed no risk to women.

"That clearly was a mistake and this court is certainly not going to repeat that mistake.

"Looking at the assessments made upon you it's clear you still, despite your illness, pose a risk to women and of behaving in this way.

"Therefore, because of that risk, the court would be utterly failing in its duty if it didn't impose a life sentence.

"It's quite clear to anyone who has had anything at all to do with either your previous case or this one that it is an extraordinarily tragic story."

The side-effects of excess medication probably triggered the offences in 1999 and 2000, he said.

But he told Parker: "By April this year your medication had been changed and I don't think it can fairly be said the commission of that offence stemmed from the medication you were taking.